A Top-flight Achievement

POMPANO BEACH — The experiment: Could women handle flying military aircraft? Among the test pilots who proved they could: Bernice "Bee" Falk Haydu.

About 25,000 women across the nation applied for a chance to fly noncombat missions in the 1940s. About 1,800 were accepted.

Only 1,074 graduated from training and went on to test-fly planes and ferry them while their male counterparts fought World War II.

"I always feared I might do something wrong or that I might not learn fast enough and get washed out," Haydu said on Saturday, between autographing copies of 1944 photographs of herself in pilot gear.

Representing the Women Airforce Service Pilots, Haydu was dressed in an authentic dark blue WASP uniform during this weekend's Air Force Association Air Fair 2001.

The show, which continues from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Pompano Beach Air Park, also features antique aircraft, military displays, helicopter rides and another group of guests -- the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military pilots who flew 200 missions during World War II.

More than half a century ago, WASPs flew a variety of aircraft, including bombers, for what was known as the Army Air Corps and later became the Air Force. They mainly flew cross-country from base to base and were prohibited from combat.

"People think it was all men, but these women flew some of the biggest, most sophisticated bombers in the world," said Gary Moline, a retired commercial pilot of Fort Lauderdale, who stopped by to shake Haydu's hand.

"An airplane knows no sex," Haydu told him.

Haydu, who has flown more than 30 types of aircraft, learned about aviation at a New Jersey night school class in 1943. During the day, she was a secretary, and nights and weekends, she took flying lessons.

In 1944 at age 22, she was stationed in Pecos, Texas, where she served for about a year as a WASP utility pilot and an engineering test pilot. She later became a flight instructor and continued flying until a few years ago.

Her favorite plane -- "whatever I was flying at the time."

Haydu said the air show raises WASP awareness and scholarship money for the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots.

"When you look at her tremendous life experience -- she flew until she was 77 -- she is a tremendous role model," said Cheryl Cichocki, of Miami Lakes, who is vice chairwoman of the local Ninety-Nines' Gulfstream chapter.

"I'll pay you later for saying that," joked Haydu, who is also a member.

Haydu lives in Riviera Beach with Joseph, her husband of 50 years. Inducted last year into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame, Haydu is a former WASP president who helped members earn veteran status in 1977.

"We were kept quiet for so long," Haydu said. "This [show] tells people we did exist. It brings attention to the world about women pilots. We're out there, active and doing things."

Jodie Needle can be reached at jneedle@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7908.